GOP Rep. Riley Moore of West Virginia traveled to El Salvador on Tuesday, where he posed for photos in front of immigrants incarcerated in the notoriously violent CECOT prison.
Moore posted four photos from his visit, including two showing him standing in front of overcrowded prison cells where immigrants are housed without any mattresses, pillows, proper nutrition, or even access to speak with family or legal representatives.
In one particularly disturbing photo, Moore is giving the camera two thumbs up.
„I just toured the CECOT prison in El Salvador. This maximum security facility houses the country’s most brutal criminals, including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and terrorists. Several inmates were extremely violent criminals recently deported from the U.S. I leave now even more determined to support President Trump’s efforts to secure our homeland,” he wrote on X.
Moore is the latest Republican to visit CECOT, following Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who took perverse pleasure in posing in front of the suffering people behind her.
But while Republicans are busy creating torture porn from their visits to CECOT, Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland left for El Salvador on Wednesday to observe the conditions of the prison and to meet with Salvadoran officials.
In particular, Van Hollen is Looking For Kilmar Abrego Garciaa Maryland man who was wrongly sent to CECOT. The Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to return Garcia to the United States, but President Donald Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele are refusing to release him.
“I just landed in San Salvador a little while ago, and I look forward to meeting with the team at the U.S. embassy to discuss the release of Mr. Abrego Garcia. I also hope to meet with Salvadoran officials and with Kilmar himself. He was illegally abducted and needs to come home,” Van Hollen wrote on Bluesky Wednesday.
Other Democratic lawmakers have requested a congressional delegation (CODEL) to visit the prison, where Trump now says he wants to send U.S. citizens.
In a letter to House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, the Democrats seeking the CODEL wrote:
A Congressional delegation would allow Committee Members to conduct a welfare check on Mr. Abrego Garcia, as well as others held at CECOT, such as Andry José Hernandez—a 30-year-old LGBTQ makeup artist who passed a “credible fear” interview during his legal asylum process before being deported.
In addition, congressional oversight is warranted following President Trump’s recent remarks in which he expressed a desire to send “homegrown criminals”—including U.S. citizens—to this facility.
As you are aware, the Committee on Oversight and Accountability is the principal investigative committee of the House of Representatives and has broad authority to examine “any matter” at “any time” under House Rule X.
We are prepared to travel as soon as possible. We would gladly include any Republican Members of the Committee who wish to participate. Given that the Senate has already authorized CODEL travel to CECOT, we believe the House should also be represented. Thank you for your prompt consideration of this request.
According to the Holocaust Museum’s definitionCECOT is a concentration camp.
A concentration camp, the museum says, “is a site for the detention of civilians whom a regime perceives to be a security risk of some sort. What distinguishes it from a prison (in the modern sense) is that incarceration in a concentration camp is independent of any judicial sentence or even indictment, and is not subject to judicial review.”
Indeed, 90% of those sent to CECOT had never been convicted of a crime, while 75% have never even been arrested, according to Aaron Reichlin-Melnicka senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.
Nazis used concentration camps „to incarcerate indefinitely people whom the Nazi regime perceived to be a security threat in the broadest possible sense (for example, from a Jew with presupposed ‘international connections’ or perceived racial deficiencies, to an alcoholic who was incapable of holding a job),” according to the Holocaust Museum.
Sound familiar?
According to Moore, that deserves two thumbs up.
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